The Garden in Late Summer

 

It's been a while.

When I started my break in August I thought I would be back in September, but it's well into October now that I finally feel like blogging again. And what better way than re-starting with Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T Tuesday?

My break was rather uneventful - I didn't go anywhere, but I took more time just to rest, sit in my garden, read or just watch the birds. I loved to hang out under the privet tree and look up - a messy and invasive tree that was already here when we moved in. It is a great shade tree and the birds (and other little creatures) love it. It is teeming with life. 

At the begining of September the new school year at the German School started and I was busy preparing new classes, visiting teacher workshops, going to teacher meetings and attending board meetings. I have a couple new students and the school year has been off to a very good start.

What truly rattled me was the fire on Maui that destroyed Lahaina. I visited Maui back in 2016 and never liked it as much as the wildness of the Big Island, but old Lahaina was my favorite place there. The speed and the surprise effect of that fire reminded me a lot of our wildfire back in October 2017 that burned down entire neighborhoods in our town within just a few hours. It didn't take much imagination to picture what the people on Maui were going through in the aftermath of that horrible day. 

Being in the garden helped a lot - which was soon prevented by wildfire smoke reaching our area (from the fires further up North) - I assume those of you who experienced the smoke from the wildfires in Canada know what I'm talking about.

The view from my porch

This year I was able to observe a lot of insects on the plants in my garden. Of course there were bees, many of them native bees, and Fiery Skippers (Hylephila phyleus) who have found a place in my heart a few years ago and never left. They love to hang around the Vitex and Verbena bonariensis.

There were some kind of blowflies (I can't identify flies), a damselfly and Mediterranean katylid (Phaneroptera nana), the latter being invasive in California. He (or she?) has impressively long antenna.

This summer there were more butterflies in my garden than usual. I was able to capture a few, but many just fluttered by without ever getting their picture taken. The first two pictures are of an Acmon blue (Icaricia acmon) and number 3 and 4 are of a California Hairstreak (Satyrium californica, left) and a California dogface butterfly (Zerene eurydice) which is the California state insect (which I didn't know before).

The Vitex agnus-castus flowered well into August and still is stunning with its by now spent flowers. Soon I need to cut it back. I loved the waning first supermoon in August above this beautiful small tree.

In my last garden post the grapes of "Roger's Red" (Vitis californica) were still very small, but in August and September they went through their path of exciting change. 

From this...

through this...

to this...

Now I'm waiting for its stunning fall color.

Late summer, of course, is for sunflowers, but I was pleased to see that my wild sweet peas were still blooming. The spent Centaurea that I only planted this spring looks quite beautiful.

The native naked buckwheat (Eriogonum nudum) was flowering for the first time and while it looks rather fragile, it is a pretty robust plant.

And who doesn't like Sedum "Autumn Joy"? I like the phase when their flowers start to turn pink.

Thankfully I had more time to watch the birds, but didn't really take a lot of pictures. Mostly, I'm sitting close to the bird feeders, reading a book or knitting, but without my camera. These three pictures of an Oak Titmouse (Baeolophus inornatus) and a California Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica) were taken with my phone and therefore not particularly good.

This is the girl who's sitting under the birdfeeders - better her than the real predators.

We had many meals outside, either just the two of us or in the company of friends. A nice refreshing rosé is the perfect summer wine. This is for Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T Tuesday, because we can't go without a drink!

One Hundred Days in My Garden

You all know that I love my garden. Hardly a day goes by that I don't find something exciting or beautiful and worth photographing. Especially in the exciting months from April to about October when the garden is changing constantly I love to be out documenting all the happenings.

So when the annual #The100DayProject came up with people committing to 100 days of exploring their creativity I decided I'm exploring the ways to take photos of the exciting things happening in my garden. I thought it would be easy to find something worth to show every day.

Well, I started out with - missing the starting day! Somehow I had it in my head that the challenge would start on April 6th, but when I saw pictures with the appropriate hashtag turning up on Instagram I realized I had it all wrong - the challenge had already started on April 2nd. Oh well, so I was just trundling a few days behind. Who cares anyway?

We had a very rainy April which resulted in a lot of grey photos with raindrops on plants. But the moment the weather became warmer and there was less rain the garden exploded. It's been a while since it had been that well soaked and it sure showed. Everything in the garden was just spectacular (the weeds as well...).

I included garden decor as well since there are a few objects in my garden that I simply love. This little angel that no one wanted because he has a broken toe has found his home sitting on some driftwood among the yarrow and fernleaf lavender.

Another angel is talking to a bird - angels and birds are good company!

This year I had a lot of poppies in my garden again. I used to have almost a meadow at the beginning of creating my garden, but then pulled the poppies before they could go to seed in order to reduce the number of them. However, in that following year I missed their happy colors, so I let those that were still there go to seed again. This year was exactly the right balance!

At the end of May the front garden looked like this:

There weren't only flowers - I also planted vegetables and herbs. This is the flower of chive.

I discovered butterflies and caterpillars; the bees are buzzing around like crazy; all kinds of beneficial bugs are hanging out in the flowers; and of course many birds come here as well.

For the first time my Rudbeckia "Indian Summer" turned out to be spectacular. All the years before they didn't do very well and I always felt like I'm an excellent Rudbeckia-killer.

I have to admit that on some days I ran out of steam - one evening when I still hadn't posted anything I actually took a picture of the glass of wine I was drinking while sitting out in the garden. Well, it was one of those 100 days in my garden, wasn't it?

An Image and Its Story - August 2018

August was the non-photography month. My work at the high school library started again, and as always at the beginning of a new school year it was chaotic and very very busy. I was running around like a chicken without a head (at least it felt like it), distributing heavy textbooks to 1600 students, loading said textbooks from the shelves onto carts, then scanning them and giving to the students. If I was lucky I could sit down for about ten minutes during the entire work day. No wonder I was utterly exhausted when I returned home in the late afternoon. Then I often had to do organisational work for the German School where I'm the lead teacher. On top of that I didn't sleep very well since so many things concerning work were running through my head.

So photography completely fell to the wayside.

However, I didn't mind very much since I knew that the busy first weeks of the school year would be over by the end of August and I would be back at my regular work schedule which gives me way more time. And so, on my first day off, I stepped out into my garden and noticed how beautiful my Autumn Joy was and that the bees were having a feast on the flowers. Looking closer I noticed a little butterfly among the busy bees, and it wasn't a Fiery Skipper that I had seen last year.

This one is a skipper as well, but I'm not sure whether it is a Sandhill Skipper or a Woodland Skipper. Both are common in the San Francisco Bay Area, and maybe someone can tell me which one it is. Just like all the skippers it was a bit jumpy and it took quite some photos to finally get one that is halfway decent. I do love those little skippers no matter what kind they are. They sure find a lot of food in my garden.

Scene & Story - September 2017

The month of September was very unusual for me in that regard that I didn't take a lot of photos. I was so busy with work, especially the beginning of the school year at the German School, that I simply didn't have the time and leisure to grab my camera and go on a photo excursion.

But just a couple days ago I put my macro lens on my Canon 7D and headed outside in the garden to see what was left so late in the season. I had thought that my Spanish Lavender still looked pretty good, and when I turned my camera to it this Fiery Skipper landed on its flower. This butterfly is a rather jumpy little guy who doesn't sit anywhere for a long time, but I was lucky to capture him (or her?) on a few images. This year I have seen quite a big amount of them as well as other butterflies and lots of bees which tells me that my garden is a sought after habitat for them with just the right plants for them to survive. I have mainly native plants and a very few "water suckers" in an otherwise low water garden. By now I am at a point where I offer a refuge not only for butterflies and bees, but there are also a lot of birds who enjoy the nectar and the seeds of the flowers.

I am joining Sarah and León for Scene and Story.